You know how I mentioned that when my cap and gown arrived, I’d take pictures?

Well … they did show up, and I had planned to take photos, but it was the middle of June. June in my neck of the suburbs is/was akin to Satan’s backside, and I couldn’t be bothered to sweat while applying makeup and donning the gown. So it has been sitting in my closet for the last six months. I also got a Bachelors hood, which was interesting in figuring out how it was supposed to look.

My dad was also looking forward to taking photos as well, and now it seems redundant to take the photos so long after I graduated. I may end up doing it one day while it’s still cool out of sheer boredom, we’ll see.

My diploma showed up two weeks ago, and I have just now decided to share the picture of it with you all.

What you might not be able to see is beneath the degree I earned are the words: Cum Laude. Yes, I did earn my permanent Latin Honors, and it came with a funny story. I brought home the diploma from the mailbox, opened it, and sent a picture of it to my sister so she could send it to our grandma. I was still miffed about not having my Latin Honors, since I worked so hard for them the next morning while out with my mom. We go to this ramp that takes you from our apartment complex to the shopping center next door, when she says, “You got your Latin Honors. It’s on your diploma.” I pull out my phone, open the photo of my diploma, and zoom in to find that she was right. I managed to stare at the diploma and stroke the seal at the bottom for several minutes, but my eyes ignored the small print.

Now the next step is getting a frame for it, which I had picked out months ago.

Today was the SNHU Commencement in New Hampshire. I had intended to watch it on my computer, but I went out with my sister and then my parents. I managed to get home in time to watch the Reading of Degrees (or handing out of degrees), and the way they do it is weird. They had two men reading off names simultaneously, and it was confusing.

I will admit this: I had to go into my bathroom have a cry. Not because I wasn’t there to participate, but for some unknown reason (I really have no idea why I cried). Thanks to a fellow student, those of us who were graduating but not attending, he provided the Commencement Program. I obviously scanned it for my name under the Arts and Sciences, and here is a collage I made with those snippets (Because WordPress has seen fit to prohibit images from being clicked on to become larger in a second window, I had to put it under the cut for page conservation):

I thought that once I was finished with college, that I would be blogging more. But it seems that some of those final English classes convinced me that writing posts about absolutely nothing wore off on me. Also, there hasn’t been much going on with me in the last three weeks.

I completed my financial aid exit counseling last week, and found out I owe $40,000 for my education. Compared to others, that is not a lot of money. However, to someone with no money and bleak career opportunities (because I don’t have 3-5 years experience), that is an exorbitant amount of money.

I reached out to my Career Advisor (who has not been very helpful in the past) last week, and she called me on Friday, and is supposed to be calling me this afternoon. Considering that the last time we set up a phone meeting she never called, I am not optimistic she will actually call me, but I could be surprised. She provided some links to potential jobs, which I saved a couple in the event she calls and asks me what I thought.

Those two jobs I liked and saved, I feel I am qualified for, but I have a lot of self-doubt. I kind of feel like I did when I began college in 2012, and I couldn’t read books by anyone because I was questioning my writing ability. Thankfully, I got over that, but the idea of actually working in a sector that I have spent the last few years working around for school is frightening. I wrote a post on obtaining a degree in Creative Writing on LinkedIn, which got a lot of views and some comments, none of which were negative, which was very interesting. My dad came across the post (because working for a hospital=having a LinkedIn account), and he showed it to my mom. Of course, they both read it, and remarked that I had writing skills (thanks for possibly questioning my writing skills dad). And now I need to look for something that will afford me to pay $250/month in student loans for the next twenty-five years.

This last week has been unreal. I was basically done with classes on March 30-31, but had to keep going onto Blackboard to see if people were commenting on my Salem Witch Trials PPT (only two classmates reviewed it). I figured since I had submitted it early, she would grade it earlier, only to find she took her sweet time grading them. I ended up with an 89% for the class. Basically, I spent last week enjoying the warm weather (which has gone back to being cool and rainy), and watching all sorts of things online. I also received my graduation gifts from my parents (and sisters), which was met with a bit of drama from a certain sister. I also used the Powerpuff Me tool in junction with the return of The Powerpuff Girls, which is seriously addicting. This is me:

This is the lock screen of my phone.

A graduation Snoopy is from my family.

This week, we’re doing a family dinner in celebration of my being a college graduate, which will be interesting to see how it all goes down. Although it is not pictured, I got a Lenovo laptop from my parents, which has been a godsend. I forgot what a normally backlit desktop looked like (since my HP’s was stuck on 115% brightness).

I wrote this post March 15th, so with any luck, I will actually do well in these final two classes, and have graduated. Update April 4: I have an ‘A’ in my IDS class, and am awaiting the final grade for History.

Well…here we are. Three-and-a-half years of hard work, some crying, and some learning, and now it is all over. Today marks the final day of Term 3, and my college career. It’s bittersweet, but I am so glad to be finished. This last term has tested my resolve, and I have literally counted down the last seven weeks of this final term. It kind of reminds me of the first semester of my Physical Science class my Sophomore year of high school, which I had to repeat with the same instructor as the year before, who was the worst teacher on the planet. I had hoped never to encounter someone like her again, and she found me, seventeen years later. But, that’s all over, and now I can breathe a little easier.

I don’t want to write a long post (not that it matters, I am getting my hair cut the day this posts), so I will now write my list of thanks:

My sister, Kelsey, who has lived with me throughout the entire college experience. Thank you for not killing me when I’ve bitten your head off because I was working under a deadline for my IDS instructor who had made it her mission to be evil. Also, thank you for not laughing or making fun of me that one Summer term when I became so frustrated formatting that paper for Anthropology or Sociology that I almost started crying.

My mom, dad, and other sister- Thanks for the support and answering any questions I had, as well as listening to me rant about classes.

The readers of this blog, who have seen my posts go from almost daily to maybe one post a month. Thanks to those who stuck around.

Thank you to the countless Advisors (all five of you) who have helped me with my issues with classes and instructors.

Thank you to the instructors who actually helped me learn something new, and made it interesting.

To my cats, Bella and Storm. I want to thank you for being cute and cuddly (although annoying) on those days when classes were kicking my butt. I yelled at you both a lot, but you always forgave me for being a jerk. Even though you can’t read this, thank you.

I also want to thank the 2.5 computers I have used during these last three years, all of which have broken in one way or another (I went back to the HP in October 2015, only to have it basically quit on me three weeks before the end of the school year. I am using the 10.1-inch computer to finish out my courses and write this post). I hate every single one of you–especially the HP, which I begged to wait until the end of college to go kaput.

Anyone I have missed, my apologies.

When my care package with cap, gown, diploma, and tassel arrive, I will take photos and post them–because that is what I do.

With all my assignments for next week. I decided to get ahead and do the whole PowerPoint presentation for IDS last week, and just finished the PPT for History which is the discussion assignment for next week. Technically I am finished with college, but I still have to hand in these assignments.

Changes are coming. Nothing too cosmetic, but I am listing this blog for future employers (per my Career Advisor’s instruction), so things are going to be a little different with the types of things I post from now on.

Right now, I am about to enter week four of my final classes (I never thought we’d get to the midterm point, but here we are), and things have been going well enough. I am doing my final project for Interdisciplinary Studies on the Syrian refugee crisis and what it means for the economies and politics of the countries involved in sheltering them (and those of us in the United States already know what that means). I am doing my final paper for History on the Salem Witch Trials (I finally get to discuss it!), and how religion and Tituba’s alleged voodoo ties work to create the perfect storm of suspicion.

I need to begin reading this week’s history text (basically an entire book), and two chapters for IDS.

With only four weeks left, I am feeling a little bit lighter. Of course a week from now, I won’t be saying the same thing: my rough draft for History is due (ten pages), and the initial slides for my IDS project will be due.

It is the end of the first week of my last college term, and it has been eventful.

I went into IDS-401 Global Society knowing that this class was going to test every aspect of myself, and I was not let down. In the first week alone, we had to find several examples of globalization and pick one that grabbed us and then write how interdisciplinarity could be applied to it. Looking to the text was useless, because there is NOTHING about any of that within the book or resources.